Youth Cricketers in the USA passionately pursue their dreams of playing cricket, until they reach high school. This is when reality hits and they figure out not many opportunities exist for them to pursue cricket further. This is the reason for a huge drop in cricket playing youth at high school levels.
Major League Cricket Academies is looking to fix this problem by providing pathways to youth cricketers at all age levels. Between Major League Cricket, Minor League Cricket, MLC Jr. Championship and Elite Talent Development program, we have enough pathways to engage the youth cricketers, provide them meaningful training, and have them play competitive tournaments. But we are looking to expand these pathways further and get more players involved with serious competitive cricket. Hence, we are announcing Minor League Cricket (MiLC) Youth and Major League Cricket (MLC) Youth.
Tangible pathways that engage our youth cricketers who are talented and passionate about the sport, is particularly important to us. We are able to achieve this by leveraging our MiLC and MLC brands to create MiLC Youth and MLC Youth.
With the addition of MiLC Youth and MLC Youth, we have provided progressive pathways for our youth cricketers of all ages, making it tangible and something they can pursue.
Jagan Nemani
Head of Academies, Major League Cricket.
MLC PATHWAYS FOR YOUTH CRICKETERS
The above picture provides a simple view of the pathways created by MLC for youth cricketers.
MLC JR. CHAMPIONSHIP
All youth cricketers play in local youth and adult cricket leagues. The first pathway step that MLC offers to these youth cricketers is the MLC Jr. Championship. Five different age categories from U11, U13, U15, U17 and U19 are part of this championship that includes eight tournaments played across the country throughout the year. Here is the announcement for MLC Jr. Championship.
MLC Elite Talent Development Program
Youth cricketers who perform well in the MLC Jr. Championship will get invited to be part of the MLC Elite Talent Development program. As part of this program, they will get invited to participate in camps and tournaments organized by MLC. Our goal is to provide talented players opportunities, facilities, and high-quality preparation to aid them in becoming better cricketers and aiming for MiLC, MLC, and USA Cricket National Team spots. Our MLC Elite Talent Development Program is designed to meet this goal.
MiLC Youth
Youth Cricketers who are in 15yrs – 19yrs age range and perform well in MLC Jr. Championship or during our camps/tournaments as part of MLC Elite Development Program will be picked to be part of our MiLC Youth teams. Every minor league team will have an associated MiLC Youth team that would be operated by MLC academy owners in that region. MiLC Youth teams will compete on the same schedule as minor league but at a different ground or different timings.
Minor League Cricket (MiLC)
Minor League team owners will look at the performance of the MiLC Youth players and would have the option to pick the best players to be part of their teams. This becomes an easier selection event for Minor League owners to fulfill their obligation to play three U21 players in the minor league. This will also provide a strong bench strength for minor league team owners.
MLC Youth
The best youth cricketers in the 16yrs to 21yrs age across the country will be picked to be part of MLC Youth team. The first series played by MLC Youth in July 2021 is MLC T20 Jr. Tournament. Once the Major League Cricket Premier T20 tournament is launched, the MLC Youth teams will use the same brand name as their MLC team, and would play on a similar schedule as the MLC team but on a different ground or different timings. Players who are part of MLC Youth team will experience how it feels like to play cricket at almost the highest level and this experience will shape their cricketing careers.
Major League Cricket (MLC)
All the pathways provide opportunities to the players to turn professional and play for a Major League Cricket team. Players who have performed well in Minor League or as part of MLC youth teams might be considered by the team owners to be part of their MLC Team.
Our long-term strategy is to have good number of home-grown talented players as part of our Major League Cricket tournaments. It is hard to achieve this strategy without good pathways. I am excited about our announcement today as it provides clear pathways, for talented cricketers of different age groups, all the way to Major League Cricket tournament.
Sameer Mehta
Co-founder, Major League Cricket
MiLC Youth Pre-season Tournament
Some of the minor league team owners are excited about the MiLC Youth announcement and are looking forward to working with the academy owners in shaping the youth teams and providing them enough opportunity to play.
MiLC Youth is an excellent concept as it would provide us a year-long view of youth players that have the potential to be part of Houston Hurricanes.
Mangesh Chaudhari
Co-Owner, Houston Hurricanes MiLC team
To get the ball rolling on MiLC Youth, we are conducting pre-season MiLC youth tournaments in Texas and Northern CA as described below:
